DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS # 35)

The Light of Life (See John 8:12-59, and chapter 9)

“Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

In the manifestation of God to His people, light had ever been a symbol of His presence. At the creative word in the beginning, light had shone out of the darkness. Light had been enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, leading the vast armies of Israel. Light blazed with awful grandeur about the Lord on Mount Sinai. Light rested over the mercy seat in the tabernacle. Light filled the temple of Solomon at its dedication. Light shone on the hills of Bethlehem when the angels brought the message of redemption to the watching shepherds.

God is light. And in the words, “I am the light of the world,” Christ declared His oneness with God, and His relation to the whole human family.

Every gem of thought, every flash of the intellect, is from the Light of the world. In these days we hear much about “higher education.” The true “higher education” is that imparted by Him “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (Colossians 2:3, and John 1:4)

In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom.

The only condition upon which the freedom of man is possible is that of becoming one with Christ. “The truth shall make you free.” And Christ is the Truth!

Many a man who likes to quibble, to criticize, seeking for something to question in the word of God, thinks that he is thereby giving evidence of independence of thought and mental acuteness. He supposes he is sitting in judgement of the Bible, when in truth, he is judging himself.

As a flower turns to the sun, that the bright rays may touch it with tints of beauty, so will the soul turn to the Son of Righteousness, that heaven’s light may beautify the character with the graces of the character of Christ.

The history of Job had shown that suffering is inflicted by Satan, and is overruled by God for purposes of mercy. But Israel did not understand the lesson. The same error for which God had reproved the friends of Job was repeated by the Jews in their rejection of Christ.

When Jesus gave sight to the blind, the Pharisees were astonished at the cure. Yet they were more than ever filled with hatred, for the miracle had been performed on the Sabbath day.

The Pharisees appeared wonderfully zealous for the observance of the Sabbath, yet were planning murder on that very day.

Christ had come to open blind eyes, to give light to them that sit in darkness. He had declared Himself to be the world, and the miracle just performed was in attestation of His mission.

The Divine Shepherd (See John 10:1-30)

Many have come presenting other objects for the faith of the world. Ceremonies and systems have been devised by which men hope to receive justification, peace with God, and thus find entrance to His fold. But the only door is Christ. All who have interposed something to take the place of Christ, all who have tried to enter the fold in some other way, are thieves and robbers.

In all ages, philosophers and teachers have been presenting to the world theories by which to satisfy the soul’s need. Every heathen nation has had its great teachers and religious systems offering some other means of redemption than Christ, turning the eyes of men away from the Father’s face, and filling their hearts with fear of Him who has given them only blessing.

Millions of human beings are bound down under false religions, in the bondage of slavish fear, of stolid indifference, toiling like beasts of burden, bereft of hope or joy, and with only a dull fear of the hereafter.

It is the gospel of the grace of God alone that can uplift the soul. The contemplation of the love of God manifested in His Son will stir the heart and arouse the powers of the soul as nothing else can. Christ came that He might re-create the image of God in humanity. Whoever turns men away from Christ is turning them away from true development. They are thieves and robbers.

As an earthly shepherd knows his sheep, so does the divine Shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the world. “You my flock, the flock of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, says the Lord God.” Jesus says, “I have called you by your name; you are mine.” “I have graven you upon the palms of my hands.” (Ezekiel 34:31, Isaiah 43:1, and 49:16)

Jesus know us individually! He is touched by the feeling of our infirmities. He knows us all by name.

Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if they were the only one for whom the Savior died. The distress of everyone touches His heart of infinite love.

The cry for aid reaches His ear. He came to draw all of humanity to Himself, and bids them, “Follow me.” Many refuse to be drawn. Jesus knows who they are. He also knows who gladly hear His call, and are ready to come under His pastoral care. He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

He compels none to follow Him. He says, “I draw them.”

It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Savior’s matchless love, revealed through His pilgrimage on earth. From the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary’s cross. The sight of Him attracts, it softens, and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the hearts of the beholders. They hear His voice and they follow Him.

The way to heaven is consecrated by Christ’s footprints. The path may be steep, and rugged, but Jesus has traveled that way. His feet have pressed down the cruel thorns, to make the pathway easier for us. Every burden that we are called to bear, He Himself has borne.

The Savior would have passed through the agony of Calvary that one might be saved in His kingdom. He will never abandon one for whom He has died. Unless His followers choose to leave Him, He will hold them fast.

Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faith can hear His voice saying, fear not, I am with you. “I am He that lives, and was dead; and behold, I am alive forevermore.” (Revelation 1:18)

While as a member of the human family He was mortal, as God He was the fountain of life to the world.

He could have withstood the advances of death, and refused to come under its dominion; but voluntarily He laid down His life, that He might bring life and immortality to light.

He bore the sins of the world, endured its curse, yielded up His life as a sacrifice, that humanity might not eventually die.

“Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows… He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6)

DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS # 34)

Who is the Greatest? (See Matthew 17:22-27, and 18:1-20)

Jesus had told the disciples that He was to die for their sake, and their selfish ambitions was in painful contrast to His unselfish love.

The strife for the highest place was the outworking of that same spirit which was the beginning of the great controversy in heaven.

There rose up before Jesus a vision of Lucifer, the “son of the morning,” in glory surpassing all of the angels that surround the throne. Lucifer had said, “I will be like the Most High. (Isaiah 14:12, 14) and the desire for self-exaltation had brought strife into the heavenly courts, and ultimately banished a large multitude of the hosts of God.

Had Lucifer really desired to be like the Most High, he never would have deserted his appointed place in heaven. For the spirit of the Most High is manifested in unselfish ministry.

Lucifer desired God’s power, but not His character.

The kingdom of Satan is a kingdom of force.

While Lucifer counted it a thing to be grasped to be equal with God. Christ, the Exalted One, “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:7, 8)

The sincere, contrite soul is precious in the sight of God.

The simplicity, the self-forgetfulness, and the confiding love of a little child are the attributes that Heaven values. These are the characteristics of real greatness.

When we see Jesus, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, working to save the lost, slighted, scorned, derided, driven from city to city till His mission was accomplished; when we behold Him in Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, and on the cross dying in agony. When we see this, self will no longer clamor to be recognized. Looking unto Jesus, we shall be ashamed of our coldness, our lethargy, our self-seeking.

It is by beholding that we become changed.

We ourselves are erring, and need Christ’s pity and forgiveness, and just as we wish Him to deal with us, He bids us deal with one another.

Whenever His word is obeyed with a sincere heart, there Christ abides.

Jesus says, “My Father which is in heaven,” reminding His disciples that while by His humanity He is linked with them, a sharer in their trials, and sympathizing with them in their sufferings. By His divinity He is connected with the throne of the Infinite. All the power of heaven is brought to combine with human ability drawing souls to Christ.

At the Feast of Tabernacles (See John 7:1-15, 37-39)

Three times a year the Jews were required to assemble at Jerusalem for religious purposes. Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, Israel’s invisible Leader had given the directions in regard to these gatherings.

Since the healing at Bethesda Jesus had not attended the national gatherings. To avoid useless conflict with the leaders at Jerusalem, He had restricted His labors to Galilee. His apparent neglect of the great religious assemblies, and the enmity manifested by the priests and rabbis, were a cause of perplexity to the people about Him, and even His own disciples and kindred.

In his teachings He had dwelt upon the blessings of obedience to the law of God, and yet he Himself seemed to be indifferent to the service which had been divinely established. His mingling with publicans and others of ill repute, His disregard of the rabbinical observances, and the freedom with which He set aside the traditional requirements concerning the Sabbath, all seeming to place Him in antagonism to the religious authorities, excited much questioning.

If Jesus knew He was the Messiah, many wondered why this strange reserve and inaction? If He really possessed such power, why not go boldly to Jerusalem, and assert His claims?

The world does not hate those who are it in spirit; it loves them as its own.

No one was regarded as qualified to be a religious teacher unless he had studied in the rabbinical schools, and both Jesus and John the Baptist had been represented as ignorant because they had not received this training… The God of heaven was their teacher, and from Him they had received the highest kind of wisdom.

There had been nothing in all the round of ceremonies to meet the wants of the spirit, nothing to satisfy the thirst of the soul for that which does not perish. Jesus invited them to come and drink of the fountain of life, of that which would be in them a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.

Jesus knows the wants of the soul. The cry of Christ to the thirsty soul is still going forth.

“Whoever desires, let him take the water of life FREELY.” (Revelation 22:17)

“Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14)

Among snares (See John 7:16-36, 40-53, 8:1-11)

All the while Jesus was at Jerusalem during the feast, he was shadowed by spies. Day after day new schemes to silence Him were tried. The priests and rulers were watching to entrap Him.

The perception and appreciation of truth, Jesus said, depends less upon the mind than upon the heart. Truth must be received into the soul, so it then can claim the homage of the will.

“Why do you go about to kill Me?” Jesus asked. Like a swift flash of light these words revealed to the rabbis the pit of ruin into which they were about to plunge. For an instant they were filled with terror. They saw that they were in conflict with Infinite Power. But they would not be warned.

If they had lived in accordance to the will of God, they would have known His Son when He was manifested to them.

Had the people in sincerity studied the scriptures for themselves, they would not have been misled. Chapter 61 of Isaiah testifies that Christ was to do the very work He did. Chapter 53 sets forth His rejection and sufferings in the world, and chapter 59 describes the character of the priests and rabbis.

God does not compel people to give up their unbelief. Before them are light and darkness, truth and error. It is for them to decide which they will accept. The human mind is endowed with power to discriminate between right and wrong.

God designs that people should not decide from impulse, but from weight of evidence, carefully comparing scripture with scripture.

More often than not, people do not search the scriptures for themselves, and judge for themselves what is truth. They yield up their own judgement, and therefore commit their souls to their leaders.

The officers sent out by the priests and rulers to arrest Jesus, returned without Him. They were angrily questioned, “Why have you not brought Him?” With solemn countenance they replied, “Never man spoke like this Man.”

Those to whom the message of truth is spoken seldom ask, “Is it true?” But “By whom is it advocated?” Multitudes estimate it by the numbers who accept it; and the question is still asked, “Have any of the learned or religious leaders believed?” Men are no more favorable to real godliness now than in the days of Christ. They are just as intently seeking earthly good to the neglect of eternal riches!

A group of Pharisees and scribes approach Jesus with a terror stricken woman who they accused of breaking the 7^th commandment. Jesus looked for a moment upon the scene—the trembling victim in her shame, and the hard faced dignitaries, devoid of even human pity. His spirit of stainless purity shrank from the spectacle.

Impatient at His delay, and apparent indifference, the accusers drew nearer, urging the matter upon His attention. But as their eyes, following those of Jesus, fell upon the pavement at His feet, their countenances changed. There, traced before them, were the guilty secrets of their own lives.

Fixing His gaze upon the plotting elders, Jesus declared. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” They stole away, leaving their victim with the pitying Savior.

“Neither do I condemn you, go, and sin no more,” Jesus told her. Her heart was melted. She cast herself at the feet of Jesus, sobbing out her grateful love, and with bitter tears, confessing her sins. This was to her the beginning of a new life.

While Jesus does not condone sin, or lessen the sense of guilt, He does not condemn, but saves!

The world had for this erring woman only contempt and scorn, but Jesus spoke to her words of comfort and hope.

Humanity hates the sinner, but loves sin. Christ hates sin, but loves the sinner!

DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS # 33)

The Foreshadowing of the Cross (See Matthew 16:13-28, Mark 8:27:-38, Luke 9:18-27)

Even before Jesus took humanity upon Him, He saw the whole length of the path He must travel in order to save that which was lost.

He knew the anguish that would come upon Him. He knew it all, and yet He said, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your will, oh My God. Yes, Your law is within My heart.” (Psalm 40:7, 8)

Although the baptism of blood must first be received. Although the sins of the world were to weigh upon His innocent soul. Although the shadow of unspeakable woe was upon Him. Yet for the joy that was set before Him, He chose to endure the cross, and despised the shame.

The vacillating course of those who praised yesterday, and condemned today, did not destroy the faith of the true follower of the Savior. Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He didn’t wait for kingly honors to crown his Lord, but accepted Him in His humiliation.

The truth which Peter had confessed is the foundation of the believer’s faith. It is that which Christ Himself has declared to be eternal life.

Never can humanity, of itself, attain to a knowledge of the divine.

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” The fact that Peter discerned the glory of Christ was evidence that he had been “taught of God.” (Psalm 25:14, and John 6:45)

“The keys of the kingdom of heaven” are the words of Christ. The words of Holy Scripture are His. These words have the power to open and shut heaven. They declare the conditions upon which men are received or rejected.

All are exposed to temptation, and are liable to error. Upon no finite being can we depend for guidance. The Rock of faith is the living presence of Christ in our lives, and in the church.

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and who makes flesh his strength.” The Lord “is the Rock, His work is perfect.” “Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him. (Jerimiah 17:5, Deuteronomy 32:4, and Psalm 2:12)

Jesus began to show His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. This caused Peter to declare, “Be it far from you, Lord: This shall not be done to you.”

Peter’s words were not such as would be a help and solace to Jesus in the great trial before Him. They were not in harmony with God’s purpose of grace toward a lost world, or with the lesson of self-sacrifice that Jesus had come to teach by His own example.

The Savior was moved to utter one of the sternest rebukes that ever fell from His lips. “Get you behind Me, Satan: you are an offence to Me: for you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

The words of Christ were spoken, not necessarily to Peter, but to the one who was trying to separate him from his Redeemer.

It was to Peter a bitter lesson, and one which he learned but slowly, that the path of Christ on earth lay through agony and humiliation. Jesus now explained to His disciples that His own life of self-abnegation was an example of what theirs should be.

To the disciples His words, though dimly comprehended, pointed to their submission to the most bitter humiliation, submission even unto death for the sake of Christ.

Jesus did not count heaven a place to be desired while we were lost. He left the heavenly courts for a life of reproach and insult, and a death of shame. He who was rich in heaven’s priceless treasure, became poor, that through His poverty we might be rich. We are to follow in the path He trod.

The Christian is ever to realize that he has consecrated himself to God, and that in character he is to reveal Christ to the world. The self-sacrifice, the sympathy, and the love.

“Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose His life, for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” Selfishness is death. No organ of the body could live should it confine its service to itself.

He Was Transfigured (See Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36)

Jesus has often spent entire nights in the mountains praying. He who had formed mountain and valley is at home with nature, and enjoys its quietude. The disciples follow where Christ leads the way; yet they wonder why their Master should lead them up the toilsome ascent when they are weary, and when He too is in need of rest.

The Man of Sorrows pours out His supplications with tears. He prays for strength to endure the test in behalf of humanity. He must Himself gain a fresh hold on Omnipotence, for only thus can He contemplate the future. He also pours out His heart longings for His disciples, that in the hour of the power of darkness their faith may not fail.

Divinity flashes through humanity, and meets the glory coming from above. Arising from His prostrate position, Christ stands in godlike majesty. The souls agony is gone. His countenance now shines “as the sun,” and His garments are “white as the light.”

Moses upon the mount of transfiguration was a witness to Christ’s victory over sin and death. He represented those who shall come forth from the grave at the resurrection of the just. Elijah, who had been translated to heaven without seeing death, represented those who will be living upon the earth at Christ’s second coming, and who will be “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;” when “this mortal must put on immortality,” and “this corruptible must put on incorruption.” (I Corinthians 15:51-53)

Heaven had sent its messengers to Jesus; not angels, but men who had endured suffering and sorrow, and who could sympathize with the Savior in the trial of His earthly life.

Jesus was clothed with the light of heaven, as He will appear when He shall come “the second time without sin unto salvation.”

The disciples were “eyewitnesses of His majesty (2 Peter 1:16), and they realized that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, to whom patriarchs and prophets had witnessed, and that He was recognized as such by the heavenly universe.

“A bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.”

As they beheld the cloud of glory, brighter than that which went before the tribes of Israel in the wilderness; as they heard the voice of God speak in awful majesty that caused the mountain to tremble, the disciples fell smitten to the earth.

They remained prostrate, their faces hidden, till Jesus came near, and touched them, dispelling their fears with His well known voice, “Arise, be not afraid.”

Venturing to lift up their eyes, they saw that the heavenly glory had passed away, the forms of Moses and Elijah had disappeared. They were on the mount, alone with Jesus.

DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS #32)

Barriers Broken Down (See Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-36)

After the encounter with the pharisees, Jesus withdrew from Capernaum, and crossing Galilee, went to the hill country on the borders of Phoenicia. Looking westward, he could see the ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon, with their heathen temples, their magnificent palaces, and markets of trade, with the harbors filled with shipping.

Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried saying, “Have mercy on me oh Lord, Son of David, my daughter is severely demon possessed.” (Matthew 5:22)

Christ knew this woman’s situation. He knew that she was longing to see Him, and He placed Himself in her path. By ministering to her sorrow, He could give a living representation of the lesson He designed to teach. For this, He had brought His disciples into the region.

He desired them to see the ignorance existing in cities and villages close to the land of Israel. The people who had been given every opportunity  to understand the truth were without a knowledge of the needs of those around them. No effort was made to help souls in darkness.

The woman urged her case with increased earnestness, bowing at His feet and crying, “Lord help me!”

Jesus, still apparently rejecting her entreaties according to the unfeeling prejudice of the Jews, answered. “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

This answer would have utterly discouraged a less earnest seeker. But the woman saw that her opportunity had come. Beneath the apparent refusal of Jesus, she saw a compassion that He could not hide!

The same agencies that barred men from Christ eighteen hundred years ago, are at work today. The evil spirit that built up the partition wall between Jew and Gentile is still active. Pride and prejudice have built strong walls of separation between different classes of humanity.

Christ and His mission have been misrepresented, and multitudes feel that they are virtually shut away from the ministry of the gospel. But let them not feel that they are shut away from Christ. There are no barriers which man or Satan can erect that faith cannot penetrate.

In faith the woman of Phoenicia flung herself against the barriers that had been piled up between Jew and Gentile. Against discouragement, regardless of appearances that might have led her to doubt, she trusted the Savior’s love!

It is thus that Christ desires us to trust in Him. The blessings of salvation are for every soul. Nothing but their own choice can prevent anyone from becoming a partaker of the promise in Christ by the gospel.

Caste is hateful to God. He ignores everything of this character. In His sight, the souls of humanity are equal in His sight.

“Seek the Lord, in the hope that you might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:27)

“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)

The True Sign (See Matthew 15:29-39; 16:1-12, Mark 7:31-37; 8:1-21)

Jesus would not send the people away hungry, and He called upon His disciples to give them food. Again, the disciples revealed their unbelief. At Bethsaida they had seen how, with Christ’s blessing, their little store availed for the feeding of the multitude; yet they did not now bring forward their all. Moreover, those he fed at Bethsaida were Jews; these were Gentiles and heathen.

Every miracle that Christ performed was a sign of His divinity. He had been doing the very work that had been foretold of the Messiah. But to the Pharisees these works of mercy were a positive offense. The Jewish leaders looked with heartless indifference on human suffering. In many cases their selfishness and oppression had caused the affliction that Christ relieved. Thus his miracles were to them a reproach.

That which led the Jews to reject the Savior’s work was the highest evidence of His divine character. The greatest significance of His miracles is seen in the fact that they were for the blessing of humanity.

The highest evidence that He came from God is that His life revealed the character of God. He did the works, and spoke the words of God. Such a life is the greatest of all miracles!

Enmity against Satan is not natural to the human heart, it is implanted by the grace of God. When one who has been controlled by a stubborn, wayward will is set free, and yields himself wholeheartedly to the drawing of God’s heavenly agencies, a miracle is wrought, so also when a man has been under strong delusion comes to understand moral truth.

Every time a soul is converted, and learns to love God, and keep His commandments, the promise of God is fulfilled. “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” (Ezekiel 36:26). The change in human hearts, the transformation of human characters, is a miracle that reveals an ever-living Savior, working to rescue souls.

The disciples were inclined to think that their Master should have granted the demand for a sign in the heavens. They believed that He was fully able to do this, and that such a sign would put His enemies to silence. They did not discern the hypocrisy of these cavilers.

The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was the product of self-seeking.

Those who classed themselves with the followers of Jesus, but who had not left all to become His disciples, were influenced in a great degree by the reasoning of the Pharisees. They were often vacillating between faith and unbelief, and they did not discern the treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ.

Even the disciples, though outwardly they had left all for Jesus’ sake, had not in heart ceased to seek great things for themselves. It was this spirit that prompted the strife as to who should be greatest.

As leaven, if left to complete its work, will cause decay. So does the self-seeking spirit work the defilement, and ruin of the soul.

It is the love of self, a desire for an easier way than God has appointed that leads to the substitution of human theories and traditions for the divine precepts.

Only the power of God can banish self-seeking and hypocrisy. This change is the sign of His working. When the faith we accept destroys selfishness and pretense, when it leads us to seek God’s glory, and not our own, we may know that it is of the right order.

“Father, glorify thy name.” (John 12:28). This was the keynote of Christ’s life, and if we follow Him, this will be the keynote of our life.

He commands us to “walk, even as He walked,” and “hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 2: verses 6, and 3).

DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS #31)

In Galilee (See John 6: 22-71)

When Christ forbade the people to declare Him king, He knew that a turning point in His history was reached. Multitudes who desired to exalt Him to the throne today would turn from Him tomorrow.

From the start of His ministry Jesus had held out to His followers no hope of earthly rewards.

If men could have had the world with Christ, multitudes would have proffered Him their allegiance, but such service He could not accept. Of those now connected with Him there were many who had been attracted by the hope of a worldly kingdom. These must be undeceived. The deep spiritual teaching in the miracle of the loaves had not been comprehended.

The fact that He claimed to be the Sent of God, and yet refused to be Israel’s king, was a mystery which they could not fathom.

Had they understood the Scriptures, they would have understood His words when He said, “I am the bread of life.” Only the day before, the great multitude, when faint and weary, had been fed by the bread which He had given. As from that bread they received physical strength and refreshment, so from Christ they might receive spiritual strength unto eternal life.

Christ appealed to those stubborn hearts. “They that come to Me I will not cast out.” All who received Him in faith, He said, should have eternal life. Not one could be lost.

Jesus did not explain the mystery of His birth. He made no answer to the questionings in regard to His having come down from heaven. Voluntarily He had made Himself of no reputation, and taken upon Him the form of a servant.

Christ became one flesh with us, in order that we might become one spirit with Him.

It is through the spirit that Christ dwells in us. And the Spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal.

The manna in the wilderness could sustain only this earthly existence. It did not prevent death, nor insure immortality. But the Bread of Heaven, Jesus, would nourish the soul unto everlasting life.

To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ is to receive Him as a personal Savior, believing that He forgives our sins, and that we are complete in Him.

It is by beholding His love, by dwelling upon it, by drinking it in, that we become partakers of His nature. What food is to the body, Christ must be to the soul. Food cannot benefit us unless we eat it, unless it becomes part of our being. So Christ is of no value to us if we do not know Him as a personal Savior.

A theoretical knowledge will do us no good. We must feed upon Him, receive Him into the heart. His love, His grace, must be assimilated.

Is your zeal languishing? Has your first love grown cold? Accept again the proffered love of Christ. Eat of His flesh, drink of His blood, and you will become one with the Father, and with the Son.

Every soul is to receive life from God’s word himself. As we must eat food for ourselves in order to receive nourishment, so we must receive the word of God for ourselves. We are not to obtain it merely through the medium of another’s mind. We should carefully study the Bible, asking God for the aid of the Holy Spirit.

The word of God, received into the soul, molds the thoughts, and enters into the development of character. By looking constantly to Jesus with the eye of faith, we shall be strengthened.

Because they were too vain and self-righteous to receive reproof, and too world loving to accept a life of humility, many turned away from Jesus. Many are still doing the same today.

The consciousness that His compassion was unappreciated, His love unrequited, His mercy slighted, His salvation rejected, filled Him with sorrow that was inexpressible. This is what made Him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

While we cannot now comprehend the works and ways of God, we can discern His great love, which underlies all his dealings with humanity.

Compassionate Redeemer, who in the full knowledge of the doom that awaited Him, tenderly smoothed the way for the disciples, prepared them for their crowning trial, and strengthened them for the final test!

Tradition (See Matthew 15: 1-20, Mark 7: 1-23)

The scribes and Pharisees, expecting to see Jesus at the Passover, had laid a trap for Him.

As before, the ground of complaint was His disregard of traditional precepts that encumbered the law of God.

Whenever the message of truth comes home to souls with special power, Satan stirs up his agents to start a dispute over some minor question. Thus he seeks to attract attention from the real issue.

The questions that should most concern us are, do I believe with saving grace, and faith on the Son of God? Is my life in harmony with the divine law? “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life.” “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (John 3:36, and 1 John 2:3)

Jesus explained that defilement comes not from without, but from within. Purity and impurity pertain to the soul. It is the evil deed, the evil word, the evil thought, the transgression of the law of God, not the neglect of external, man-made ceremonies, that defiles a person.

Every human invention that has been substituted for the commandments of God will be found worthless in that day when “God shall bring every work into judgement, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14)

(WRITER’S NOTE: Bible prophecy is not just something in the future that we can’t really understand, or that has been falsely, and fictionally portrayed in popular books and movies. As a matter of fact, most prophecies have already taken place. We just need to understand a little history, as the last are getting closer to being fulfilled before Jesus returns. If you would like to understand what the Bible actually teaches about prophecy, here is some suggested viewing on YouTube: ‘Unlocking Bible Prophecies’ with Cami Oetman, and ‘Bible Flock Box’ with Greg Sereda.)

CXXXVII

WRITER’S NOTE

Dear Reader, thank you for your support! FYI, I will be taking a hiatus from writing stories. Whether it will be just this week, a month, or longer, I do not know. I’m praying for direction on how God would have me best use the time He has blessed me with.

However, I will still be posting ‘Destiny’s Notes’ every week. Once again, thank you, and may God richly bless you!

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS # 30)

Give Them To Eat. (See Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6: 32-44, Luke 9: 10-17, John 6: 1-13)

Christ had retired to a secluded place with His disciples, but this rare season of peaceful quietude was soon broken. From the hillside He looked upon the moving multitude, and His heart was stirred with sympathy.

Interrupted as He was, and robbed of His rest, He was not impatient. He saw a great necessity demanding His attention as He watched the people coming and still coming. He “was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd.”

Jesus had labored all day without food or rest. He was pale from weariness and hunger, and the disciples besought Him to cease from His toil. But He could not withdraw Himself from the multitude that pressed upon Him.

Turning to Philip, He asked, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” This He said to test the faith of the disciple.

It was humble food that was provided. The fishes and barley loaves were the daily meals of the fisher folk about the Sea of Galilee. Selfishness and the indulgence of unnatural taste have brought sin and misery into the world. From excess on the one hand, and from want on the other. Christ taught them in this lesson that the natural provisions of God for man had been perverted.

God has promised that which is far better than worldly good, the abiding comfort of His own presence.

After the multitude had been fed, there was an abundance of food left. But He who had all the resources of infinite power at His command said, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”

These words meant more than putting the bread into the baskets. The lesson was twofold. Nothing is to be wasted. We are to let slip no temporal advantage. We should neglect nothing that will tend to benefit a human being.

How often our hearts sink, and faith fails us, as we see how great is the need, and how small the means in our hands. Like Andrew looking upon the five barley loaves and two little fishes, we exclaim, “What are they among so many?”

Often we hesitate, unwilling to give all that we have, fearing to spend and be spent for others. But Jesus has bidden us, “Give them to eat.” His command is a promise. And behind it is the same power that fed the multitude beside the sea.

Christ is the great center, the source of all strength. His disciples are to receive their supplies from Him. The most intelligent, the most spiritually minded, can bestow only as they receive. Of themselves they can supply nothing for the needs of the soul.

Successful work for Christ depends not so much on numbers or talent as upon pureness of purpose, the true simplicity of earnest, dependent faith.

So when you are surrounded by souls in need, know that Christ is there with you.

The miracle of the loaves appealed to everyone in the vast multitude. In the days of Moses, God had fed Israel with manna in the desert. Who was this that fed them that day but He whom Moses had foretold?

(Night On The Lake)

(See Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:14-21)

When left alone, Jesus went up into a mountain apart to pray. For hours He continued pleading with God. Not for Himself but for men were those prayers. The Savior knew that His days of personal ministry on earth were nearly ended.

In travail and conflict of soul He prayed for His disciples. They were to be grievously tried. Their long cherished hopes, based on popular delusion, were to be disappointed in a most painful and humiliating manner. In the place of exaltation to the throne of David they were to witness His crucifixion.

This was to be indeed His true coronation. But they did not discern this, and in consequence strong temptations would come to them.

Without the Holy Spirit to enlighten the mind and enlarge the comprehension, the faith of the disciples would fail. It was painful to Jesus that their conceptions of His kingdom were, to so great a degree, limited to worldly aggrandizement and honor.

On the lake, the disciples thoughts were stormy and unreasonable. The Lord gave them something else to afflict their souls and occupy their minds. God often does this when men create burdens and troubles for themselves.

Already danger was fast approaching. A violent tempest was stealing upon them, and they were unprepared for it. Jesus had not forgotten them. The Watcher on the shore saw those fear stricken men battling with the tempest. Not for a moment did He lose sight of His disciples.

When their hearts were subdued, their unholy ambition quelled, and in humility they prayed for help, it was given them.

A gleam of light reveals a mysterious figure walking on the water, and they soon realized it was Jesus. Peter, beside himself with joy, asks to join Jesus on the water. But taking his eyes off of Him, he sinks and nearly loses his life. But Jesus takes his hand and rescues him.

When trouble comes upon us, how often we are like Peter! We look upon the waves, instead of keeping our eyes fixed upon the Savior.

He does not call us to follow Him, and then forsake us!

Jesus desired to reveal to Peter his own weakness, to show that his safety was in constant dependence upon divine power. Amid the storms of temptation, he could walk safely only as in utter self-distrust he should rely upon the Savior.

It is the daily test that determines our victory or defeat in life’s great crisis. Those who fail to realize their constant dependence upon God will be overcome by temptation.

Only through realizing our own weakness and looking steadfastly unto Jesus can we walk securely.

TRICKY TRIANGLE

EPILOGUE

BROCK STORM

“Thanks for meeting me,” greeted my cousin, Dr. Hailey Storm, when I joined her at a coffee shop.

“No problem,” I said with a hesitant smile.

She ordered a coffee that looked more like a milkshake, and I got a sparkling water. After we sat, she began to twist a napkin nervously. She repeated, “Thanks for coming.”

“No problem,” I replied a second time. “Is everything alright with your parents?”

“Funny you should ask,” she replied with a humorless chuckle. “I mean, they’re doing as well as we could hope. Mom’s rehab is progressing nicely, and Dad is maintaining.”

I knew her mom and dad, my Uncle Hal and Aunt Dawn, had recently taken up residence in a nursing home. Her mother had a severe stroke, while her father has Alzheimer’s.

“That’s good,” I smiled encouragingly. “So why is it funny I should ask then?”

“Well,” she said with a wince. “Now that we’re here, together, I don’t know how to put this.”

“Put what?”

“Brock, do you remember the summer of 2003?”

I felt myself tense. How do you forget having the hots for someone forbidden? How do forget that your cousin was your first love?

“Of course I do.”

“In particular, do you remember the last time we fished together?”

“How could I forget?” I replied, laughing without humor. Now I twisted nervously at a napkin.

“We sure started down a dangerous path back then, didn’t we?” she asked me earnestly.

“I suppose we did,” I replied. “But we came to our senses and got off that path.”

“What if we weren’t cousins?”

“Huh?” I frowned, not understanding what she was getting at.

“If we weren’t cousins, would you have wanted me?”

“Wanted you how?”

“You know,” she smiled shyly. “Would you have wanted us to be boyfriend, girlfriend?”

“Are you kidding? In a heartbeat.”

She stared at me with a solemn expression. “We’re not blood cousins.”

“Huh?” I responded dumbly.

“I was going through some old family photos,” she explained. “Some hidden family photos. They caused me to question my parentage. I confronted my mother, and she confirmed my suspicions.”

“So… You were adopted?”

She shook her head. “Do you remember Ed Parker?”

“Sure I do. He’s that family friend that you always called Uncle Eddie.”

“Right, well, turns out, he and my mom had a brief fling.”

Her gaze was somber as she let me do the concluding.

“So Uncle Eddie was actually Papa Eddie?”

She nodded.

“But you didn’t know?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t know what to say,” I replied. “I don’t even know what to think. The little bit I was around Uncle Hal and Ed, they seemed to get along just fine.”

“That’s the weird thing,” Hailey shrugged. “They truly did get along great. I suppose if Uncle Eddie was involved in my life, and there was animosity between he and my father, I might have suspected.”

“You still think of him as Uncle Eddie?”

“Of course. And dad is dad. But what about us?”

“What do mean?”

“Brock, you ruined me for other guys!”

This stunned me. I felt rebuked, but I didn’t know why. My cousin Hailey and I did have a major thing for each other. But we were young, naïve, and we didn’t have sex. So how could I have ruined her? We did kiss passionately for a few minutes, but it was reciprocal, and I was the one that put the brakes on. “Look, I don’t know what else to say but sorry, I…”

“No, Brock, that came out wrong,” she interrupted, covering a delicate hand over my rough hand. “What I meant is that all the guys I’ve dated, I subconsciously compared to you, and nobody has ever met up to the standard I set up in my mind.”

“Uh oh,” I grinned. “You seem to be getting into shrink stuff.”

“Sorry,” she laughed, removing her hand from mine. “What I’m saying, though, is an indirect compliment. Besides, it’s not just that. I have always been a bit of a workaholic. I guess the combination is why I’m in my mid-thirties, and not only single, but never even had a steady boyfriend.”

“Wow,” I replied, half to myself in amazement.

“Wow what?” Hailey inquired, a hint of paranoia in her eyes.

“Oh, I just didn’t know that,” I said. “I mean, I knew you never married. But I never would have guessed somebody as beautiful and smart as you never had a boyfriend.”

“Thanks,” she said with a sentimental smile and a shrug.

“If it’s any consolation, you did the same thing to me until I was in my thirties. But then I met Dee, and her beauty and character are on par with yours.”

Hailey smirked and shook her head.

“What?” I inquired.

“God is so good, and works in mysterious ways.”

“I agree, but could you be more specific?”

“I read the e-book ‘Knight-Storm’ by Johnathan Embers,” she replied. “I know Destiny is a former porn star, that barely graduated high school. I spent more than half a decade in college achieving a doctorate. Yet Destiny’s ministry to women has had a bigger impact than my little practice.”

“You don’t know that. You’re comparing apples with oranges.”

She shrugged. “You said you were in a similar situation to me until you met Destiny.”

“Yeah.”

“What about that FBI agent, Nora Medora? Weren’t you two an item for eight years?”

I winced. “Nora and I had a complex relationship. She and I were together before I found God. We were more like friends with benefits if you know what I mean.”

“I’m a psychologist,” she said with a playful grin. “I know what you mean. But my question is, did you love her?”

“I did, but it’s complicated. You know the old adage, if you want friends, show yourself friendly?”

“Sure.”

“Well, it’s like that. Nora has always been married to her job. And I’ve never known a woman so cold and emotionless. To be blunt, she’s not a very loving person so she was hard to love. Great cop, not a great lover.”

“So why were you with her so long?”

“It goes back to what we talked about a before. I wasn’t meeting women that compared to you, so I didn’t want a real relationship. But Nora was physically attractive, and we had an agreement to be exclusive with each other, in a purely physical relationship. That way we both had no worries about STD’s.”

She scrunched her cute little nose in disgust. It occurred to me, and not for the first time, that my initial attraction to Destiny was because she looked so similar to Hailey. She said with a little laugh. “I guess that was TMI.”

“But you’re a shrink, surely you’ve heard worse?”

She shrugged. “I have, but not from the lips of my dream guy.”

The hairs on my neck prickled, because I could relate to how she felt, and we were cousins. Yet, now it seemed we weren’t. Yet we still were. Life is complex!

“Can I ask you a TMI question?” I asked.

“Okay,” Hailey drawled hesitantly.

“You’re a committed Christian, yet you haven’t married. So, have you ever, you know, had sex?”

She shook her head.

I nodded. “I have another question. That summer day in the fishing boat. If I would have pursued rather than dissuaded, what would you have done?”

“I’d like to think I would have stopped us, but I honestly don’t know. I was a teenage girl with wild emotions, and obsessed with a guy I wanted to please.”

I felt an inappropriate twinge, and the need to get to the heart of the matter. “Hailey, what is it that you want from me today? I don’t mean to sound crass, but I’m happily married, so, as fond as I am of you, us not being blood cousins is irrelevant.”

“Oh, I know,” she said with wide eyes. “I guess by wanting to get together, I wanted complete closure with what happened between you and me. I mean, I thought I had closure years ago, but this whole parentage thing opened it back up. I guess I was just curious how you felt about the whole thing, and I wanted to pick your brain a little.”

“Yeah, well, it’s hard to say,” I replied. “I was such a different person twenty years ago. I honestly don’t know how I would have responded. My best guess is that I probably would have pursued sex with you, and went from there. Yet you just said you might have stopped that direction.”

She smiled sadly. “It’s been said that an unexamined life isn’t worth living. Yet sometimes when you examine it, you come up with even more unknowns.”

“Are you angry with your parents?”

“I was at first, but I understand my Mom’s reasons for wanting to keep it a secret. I don’t approve of the deceptive aspect, though. But that’s her choice, her sin.”

“But you were the one most directly affected.”

She shrugged. “Actually, I feel like Uncle Eddie was most affected. He knew the truth and loved me immensely, yet he had to distance himself from his true identity as my father.”

“I’d like to know how Uncle Hal not only forgave, but then allowed Ed to be such a huge part of your families lives. I mean were they truly best friends, or were they just amazing actors?”

“They were genuine friends. Trust me, I grew up with them.”

“Was there any family strife I wasn’t aware of?”

“No, I mean there were typical trials, but overall I grew up in an atmosphere of love and laughter.”

“That’s amazing, you ought to write a book.”

“Not me.”

“I have an idea, why not have your cousin Seven tell it on his podcast?”

“He’s your cousin too,” Hailey laughed.

“I don’t like to admit that,” I chuckled.

“Brock!” Hailey scolded.

“No, no, I’m kidding. I love our cousin, I just haven’t always liked him.”

Hailey laughed. “I tell you what. I’ll share this story with him if our little love story can be part of it.”

I felt my toes curl. But I knew by our conversation, that the what if of ‘us’ was a big struggle for her after she discovered her parent’s deception. But to me whether we would have or wouldn’t have pursued a relationship was irrelevant. We can’t go back in time, and besides, I’m deeply in love with my wife and wouldn’t even want to.

But whereas Hailey is a very reflective person, I’ve never been much of a rearview mirror type of guy. So for my cousin who I now simply loved as a sister in Christ, I said ‘Yes.’

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS #29)

Come Rest Awhile (See Matthew 1, 2, 13, Mark 6:30-32, Luke 9:7-10)

On returning from their missionary tour, the apostles gathered themselves together with Jesus, and told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves… And rest a while.”

While the disciples had been absent on their missionary tour, Jesus had visited other towns and villages, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. It was about this time that He received tidings of John the Baptist’s death.

This event brought vividly before Him the end to which His own steps were tending. The shadows were gathering thickly about His path. Priests and rabbis were watching to compass His death, spies hung upon His steps, and on every hand plots for His ruin were multiplying.

With saddened hearts the disciples of John had carried away his mutilated body to its burial. Then they went and told Jesus. These disciples had been envious of Christ when He seemed to be drawing the people away from John. They had sided with the pharisees in accusing Him when he sat with the publicans at Matthew’s feast. They had doubted His divine mission because He did not rescue the Baptist from death. But now that their teacher was dead, and they longed for consolation in their great sorrow, and for guidance as to their future work, they came to Jesus, and united their interests with His. They too needed a season of quiet for communion with the Savior.

The rest which Christ and His disciples took was not self-indulgent rest. The time they spent in retirement was not devoted to pleasure seeking. They talked together regarding the work of God, and the possibility of bringing greater efficiency to the work.

Like the disciples, we are in danger of losing sight of our dependence on God, and seeking to make a savior of our activity. We need to look constantly to Jesus, realizing that it is His power which does the work.

No other life was so crowded with labor and responsibility as was that of Jesus; yet how often He was found in prayer! How constant was His communion with God!

In a world of sin Jesus endured struggles and torture of soul. In communion with God He could unburden the sorrows that were crushing Him. Here He found comfort and joy. In Christ the cry of humanity reached the Father of infinite pity.

Through continual communion He received life from God, that He might impart life to the world. His experience is to be ours.

The silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10. Here alone can true rest be found.

Amid the hurrying bustle and the strain of life’s intense activities, the soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace. The life will breathe out fragrance, and will reveal a divine power that reach people’s hearts.

TRICKY TRIANGLE

CHAPTER 15

DR. HAILEY MAY STORM

I was surprised, but not shocked, when at the age of thirty-five, I was going through some family pictures and saw ‘Uncle Eddie’ holding me right after I was born. I was curious girl. I had always wondered why a friend of my parents was so devoted to me, while at the same time seeming to keep his love for me on the down low.

I wondered why I had blonde hair and blue eyes like ‘Uncle Eddie,’ but my mother and father had dark hair and brown eyes. But then, I knew how babies were made. It would have taken an affair for Eddie to be my dad. But the man I knew as my father was genuinely close with ‘Uncle Eddie.’ Guys just wouldn’t be that way if some sort of love triangle was involved. Or would they?

I loved ‘Uncle Eddie,’ my biological father, with all my heart. Not because he spoiled me. He was kind and gentle, despite being a valiant warrior, a former Marine, and a distinguished police officer.

A year and five days after he had knelt with me, prayed, and given his heart back to the Lord Jesus, ‘Uncle Eddie,’ my second dad, passed away from lung cancer. He was fifty years old. It was then, at the age of eleven, that I discovered grief could make you physically ill.

It was this mental torment, coupled with ‘Uncle Eddie’s encouragements of my counseling abilities, that led to my pursuit of healing the mind and soul. This resulted with me achieving a doctorate in psychology. Uncle Eddie was the first person to call me Dr. Hailey May Storm a decade and a half before I actually earned it.

There are so many contradictions in a person’s life. Nothing has taught me that more than my job as a psychologist, with the exception of my own life. Is there such a thing as a sin of omission? I believe there is.

I love my mother and father immensely. But letting me grow up believing a lie was just plain wrong. However, I shouldn’t complain since I had a wonderful childhood. I was taught Bible truths that led to old fashioned values. I just had one snag, a secret, that if known would have been a disgrace. My own cousin, Brock Storm, was my first romantic love. The truth is, we were briefly kissing cousins.

I was thirteen when I first developed a crush on Brock. I know this because he is three years older than me, and he had just gotten his driver’s license. At a family gathering, he asked me if I wanted to go for a drive. I said ‘sure’ and off we went in his dad’s four wheel drive pickup.

I felt so cool tooling around town with Brock. He had already developed a reputation as not only a tough guy, but thee tough guy in our neck of the woods. He was always so quiet and mysterious that people were afraid of him. So I felt privileged when he started asking me about myself. What I wanted to be, what I liked to do.

We would only see each other occasionally over the next couple of years. But then something happened when I was a freshman and Brock was a senior. I wasn’t interested in sports, and I declined invitations to become a cheerleader. Instead my friends were book nerds like me.

One boy in particular, Clayton Tatum, was part of our little group of friends. He was a gangly, clumsy nerd with a long narrow nose that his glasses constantly slid down. One day he was walking through the school parking lot reading a textbook, when he dropped it, hitting the bumper of a senior’s car. It did no harm whatsoever to the vehicle, but it elicited the rath of Todd Emerson, the owner. He and his group of hoodlums began harassing Clay after that. They even gave him the moniker Gay Clay.

One day after Clay and I left a class we had together, Emerson came up behind him and knocked his notebook out of his hand. Papers scattered as Emerson and his cronies cackled. I knelt with Clay and helped him retrieve his papers. The next thing I knew Brock was there, bending over and picking up a paper, handing it to Clay.

Emerson had stopped a couple class rooms up where a half dozen guys talked and laughed. Brock eyed them coolly, then turned to Clay. “Go up and knock Emerson’s book out of his hands.”

Clay’s eyes widened, and he shook his head. With a trembling voice he said, “I can’t do that.”

“Yeah, you can,” Brock grinned. “I’ll be with you, you won’t get hurt, I promise.”

Clay glanced nervously at me. I almost couldn’t contain the excitement I felt. But I calmly told Clay, “Brock’s my cousin. If he says you won’t you won’t get hurt, you won’t get hurt. And this will likely stop the bullying.”

“This wasn’t an isolated event?” Brock asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Emerson picks on him all the time,” I told Brock. “Calls him Gay Clay.”

“Come on,” Brock insisted, taking Clay by the arm. “If he doesn’t leave you alone after our encounter, you let me know.”

You should have seen the look on Emerson’s face when Clay knocked his book from his grasp. First there was surprise, then shock when he saw what Clay had done. Then anger, quickly followed by fear, when he realized Brock was not just spectating, but accompanying Clay.

“Deck him, Todd,” one of Emerson’s friends instigated. Brock yanked a book bag off the friend’s shoulder and flung it. “Hey, I did nothing to you.”

“And Clay did nothing to Emerson, or any of you,” Brock replied with a menacing calm.

“Look man, I got no beef with you,” Emerson told Brock.

“Oh yes, you do,” Brock replied sternly. “Clay is a friend of Hailey Storm. She’s my cousin, and any friend of hers is a friend of mine.”

Something dawned on Emerson’s face. He didn’t even know my name was Hailey, let alone Storm. But everyone knew Brock. Forgive me, but I felt a sudden surge of pride, coupled with justice. My jaw clenched, and I crossed my arms, glaring at Emerson. He looked away.

“Come on, guys,” Emerson said, and began to walk off.

Brock grabbed him by the shirt collar and yanked him back. You could fabric tearing. “Did I say you could leave?”

“What’s going on here?” a teacher barked.

“If I hear that you even look at Clay wrong, next time I won’t be so nice,” Brock warned Emerson.

“Let’s break this up!” the teacher demanded. “Go on, get to your next classes.”

I have to hand it to Emerson, he obeyed Brock’s instruction. The bullying not only stopped, but if he happened to glance at Clay, or me for that matter, he quickly looked away.

The weekend after Brock’s intervention for Clay, I went to his house to thank him. He was loading fishing gear into his pickup truck when I arrived. He humbly shrugged off my appreciation, and invited me to join him fishing.

I had a great time! But more for the conversation than the fishing. We talked about all manner of life, but ironically, what we talked the most about was God. At that time Brock was embracing an atheistic viewpoint. There were two things I said that made the gears of his brain churn. First, I asked him what prodded him to do the right thing, if not the Spirit of God?

A little later he challenged. “If God is real, call him down to join us right now, and I’ll believe you.”

“Obviously I can’t do that,” I replied.

“See, I told you that you can’t prove God exists.”

“But you can’t prove that he doesn’t.”

Brock narrowed his eyes and nodded. Then he asked, “What about all the evil in the world? If God is good, why doesn’t he put a stop to it and create a perfect world?”

“Bible prophecy tells us that He will do just that in the future. Right now we live in a fallen world that needs saving, and we do that through God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Brock, we live in a world that murdered God when chose to walk among us. If you don’t like how cruel this world is, your beef is with the prince of this fallen world, Satan, not the Creator.”

When Brock made a joke by quoting Acts 26:28, I knew he had at least read some of the Bible. He told me in old English vernacular. “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

I laughed, but would have been more pleased if he had quoted something the Apostle Paul said, rather than King Agrippa.

Although I had a great time, I left Brock that day feeling troubled. My crush on my own cousin was transforming into falling in love. I knew it was impossible, yet I couldn’t help the way I felt. I told myself it would pass, and that Brock surely didn’t have reciprocal feelings for me.

Yet a couple weeks later, he invited me to go fishing with him again. We sort of became occasional fishing buddies over the next couple years. I was not a late bloomer, and during the summer of 2003, I tried to make the most of it. Brock was twenty, while I was seventeen. I wore a bikini top and short shorts. Although I noticed Brock noticing me, he never invited me to go fishing alone with him again.

July fourth, 2004, found Brock, our cousin Six Sallie, and me out fishing together. Six had brought a cooler of beer. I thought Brock didn’t drink, so I was surprised when he took one from Six. Then to my surprise, Six handed one to me, and I drank it. I had never had alcohol before that day, and so far, have never touched it since.

One led to two, two to three, and three to four. Somebody called at Six from the lakeshore. The next thing I knew, Six was gone, and Brock and I were alone. I don’t know how many beers he had, but I perceived we were on the same page with our desires. When we relaunched from the shore, Brock maneuvered the little fishing boat to a secluded spot.

But rather than seducing me, which I had secretly hoped, he cast his line and leaned back in his seat, relaxing. So I devised a plan to seduce him. I cast my line, but rather than lean back in my seat, I laid out a beach towel. There was just enough room on the small boat to lay down.

“Will you let me know if I have a bite?” I asked Brock.

“How come?”

“I’m gonna catch some sun on my back side.”

“Alright.”

I laid down on my stomach, reached to my back and untied my bikini top. After a few minutes, I heard Brock pop a beer open. I abruptly turned and asked, “What was that?”

Brock had been staring lustfully at me, and in surprise, choked on the beer he was swallowing. “What was what?”

“Oh, it must have been you opening your can.”

“Hailey, put your top back on!”

“Why, do you think I’m ugly?” I asked with a playful pout.

“No, no, not at all, as a matter of fact, you, um… Never mind.”

“I what?”

“Never mind.”

I grabbed my top and quickly put it back on. The alcohol must have made me get overly dramatic, emotional, and manipulative. I started to cry. “You do think I’m ugly.”

“Are you kidding?” Brock asked, going to one knee in front of me and taking a hand. “You look in mirrors, you know that you’re drop dead gorgeous.”

“I am?” I replied, giving him wide, vulnerable eyes. “So what’s the problem?”

“What’s the problem?” he said, snorting a sarcastic laugh. “I’m in a boat with my almost naked cousin, who looks like she just walked out of a Playboy magazine.”

“And that’s a problem?” I asked with a sultry smile.

“Yeah, I’d say having inappropriate thoughts about your cousin is a problem.”

“Maybe the thoughts need to become reality,” I said, and kissed him.

I don’t know how long we kissed. It was at least two minutes, but no longer then ten, when another boat entered the little nook where we were floating. We quickly separated with me grabbing my pole and Brock starting the little engine, taking us to shore.

“Look, Hailey, we better stop hanging out together,” Brock said with a sad smile.

“Why?” I tried not to whine.

“Because I’m falling in love with my cousin.”

“You are?”

“I’m ashamed to admit it, but yes.”

“But I’m in love with you, too. We can make it work.”

“Hailey, we’re cousins! We have the same grandpa and grandma!”

Brock, voicing the reality, caused me to feel ashamed. I nodded and bowed my head.

“I think both of us drinking caused us to lose control,” Brock said. “Let’s go get a cup of coffee.”

We had a nice talk over coffee, but it was bittersweet. I was relieved to find out that we both felt the same about each other, but frustrated we couldn’t be with each other due to our relation. Although we parted on good terms, Brock and I never really talked again. We saw each other a half a dozen times at weddings and funerals, but only exchanged brief small talk.

When I first found evidence that Hal Storm wasn’t my biological father, my first thought was of Brock, and what if? When my mother confirmed my suspicions, I wanted to lash out at her and tell her what the lie of omission cost me, but I didn’t.

I know that I would have wanted a relationship with Brock if I knew the truth, but I didn’t know about Brock. After all, we were still cousins, just not by blood. I had to muster up the courage to ask him in person.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS #28)

The first true evangelists (See Matthew 10, Mark: 7-11, Luke 9:1-6)

The apostles had listened to Jesus’s discourses, they had walked and talked with the Son of God, and from His daily instruction they had learned how to work for the elevation of humanity.

During His ministry Jesus devoted more time to healing the sick than to preaching. Wherever Jesus went, the tidings of His mercy preceded Him.

The followers of Christ are to labor as He did. We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the suffering and afflicted. We are to minister to the despairing, and inspire hope in the hopeless.

God’s servants are to contend with supernatural forces, but they are assured supernatural help. Our infirmities may be many, our sins, and mistakes grievous; but the grace of God is for all who seek it with contrition. The power of Omnipotence is enlisted in behalf of those who trust in God.

Jesus fearlessly denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity, but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved, that refused to receive Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. They rejected Him, the Savior, but He regarded them with pitying tenderness, and sorrow so deep that it broke His heart.

Every soul was precious in Jesus’s eyes. While He always bore Himself with divine dignity, He bowed with tenderest regard to every member of the family of God. In all humanity He saw souls whom it was His mission to save.

The servants of God are to overcome evil by the power of Christ. The glory of Christ is their strength. They are to fix their eyes upon His loveliness. Let them rest in the love of God, and the spirit will be kept calm, even under personal abuse. The Lord will clothe them with a divine panoply.

God is dishonored and the gospel is betrayed when His servants depend on the counsel of men who are not under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Worldly wisdom is foolishness with God.

Jesus Himself never purchased peace with compromise.

It is Satan’s work to men’s hearts with doubt. He leads them to look upon God as a stern judge. He tempts them to sin, and then to regard themselves as too vile to approach their heavenly Father or to excite His pity. The Lord understands all this. Jesus assures His disciples of God’s sympathy for them in their needs and weaknesses. Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father’s heart.

God is bending from His throne to hear the cry of the oppressed. To every sincere prayer He answers, “Here am I.” He uplifts the distressed and downtrodden. In all our afflictions He is afflicted. In every temptation and every trial the angel of His presence is near to deliver.

A daily, earnest striving to know God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent, would bring power and efficiency to the soul.

TRICKY TRIANGLE

CHAPTER 14

Summer 1996

The child grew, becoming strong in spirit with the grace of God. She had love for Jesus  in her. Hailey May Storm was a happy, healthy, and obedient little girl. After her parents, the people she loved the most were her Uncle Eddie, her two brothers, and her niece, April Storm.

Her niece, being one month older than Hailey, became her best friend growing up. Her Uncle Eddie was like a third parent, even though he wasn’t actually her blood uncle. He was the fun one. He never told her it was time for bed or to clean her room. No, he showered her with gifts and rarely missed an event she participated in. What she didn’t know was that Uncle Eddie was her biological father.

Hailey was a mini me of her mother with the exception of her coloring. Dawn had dark brown hair sprinkled with white, and brown eyes. Dawn’s husband Hal had brown hair and hazel eyes. Hailey had blonde hair and blue eyes just like bio dad. Yet if anyone questioned Hailey’s parentage, they kept it to themselves.

There was something about Uncle Eddie that troubled Hailey. There frequently seemed to be a dark pall in his demeanor. Yet whenever they greeted each other or said goodbye, his smile was like a beam of sunlight breaking out of a gloomy day.

Their relationship was such that when Hailey went to Uncle Ed’s house across the street, she entered without knocking. One afternoon when she was ten, she discover him sleeping on the sofa. Only it wasn’t a peaceful sleep. He was trembling, moaning, groaning, and then grunting. Hailey perceived it was a nightmare and proceeded to gently wake him.

Before Hailey realized what was happening, Ed reared off the couch, grabbed Hailey’s shoulder, and hurled his fist at her face. She emitted a blood curdling shriek, and Ed’s knuckles stopped just an inch from her nose.

He stared at her dumfounded, releasing his grip on her shoulder. She rubbed the tender spot, gazing at him with a frightened expression. Beads of sweat bubbled on his forehead. His lower lip trembled and his eyes seemed to be electrified in their sockets. “Oh Hailey, my little girl, I… I’m so sorry. I… I thought you were an intruder, or something.”

Hailey wondered at him calling her his little girl, and it would resonate with her for years. Uncle Eddie usually called her Angel. Maybe little girl wasn’t that much different from being called his angel, yet it was. Little girl felt sort of like being called his daughter, and she knew she wasn’t an angel, even though she tried to be good.

With trembling fingers, Ed lit a cigarette. Hailey knew he smoked, but he rarely smoked in front of her, and never inside. He took a drag. As he blew out the smoke, he looked at Hailey, then at the cigarette, and then quickly snuffed it out. Clearly Uncle Eddie wasn’t himself. He must have been having a very bad nightmare. Hailey had had bad dreams before, but Uncle Eddie’s dream must have been beyond bad on an otherwise pleasant afternoon.

“Were you having a bad dream?” Hailey asked gently.

“I guess I was,” Ed said, and then forced a chuckle.

“I have bad dreams sometimes,” she acknowledged.

“Yes, Angel, I guess everyone does.”

“Yours seemed exceptionally bad.”

Eddie grinned at her use the word exceptionally. She often used big words now. His little girl was growing up, becoming as smart as a whip. “I suppose so.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” Ed said abruptly, then regretted how sharp it sounded. He smiled. “I’m used to bad dreams, Honey.”

“How come?”

Ed shrugged. “I’ve had them quite a bit.”

“Mom says it’s good to talk to someone you trust when something troubles you.”

“Yeah,” he nodded, and looked away from her earnest gaze. “It’s just there’s some things a guy doesn’t want to talk about.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“Sure I do, Angel. It’s just… well…”

“Just what?” She asked softly, taking his hands in hers.

He marveled at how wholesome and pure she was, despite being conceived in sin. She was plain, yet pretty, just like her mother. Her eyes were shaped like Dawn’s, but the color was his. He loved her as much, if not more than Wendy. But that’s comparing apples with oranges.

Wendy was his lover, his soulmate, his wife. Taken from him way too soon. But this young vibrant girl, his daughter, was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. To her, he was Uncle Eddie. But to him, she was everything.

Something was happening that he dreaded, but was powerless to stop. Tears welled, and then dribbled out of his eyes. Hailey’s own eyes filled with tears, and her countenance was pure love. She croaked, “Please talk to me, Daddy.”

Ed felt as if he had been jabbed by an electric prod. Did she just call him Daddy?

“Did you just call me Daddy?”

“I guess so… Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. But why did you call me that?”

She shrugged because she didn’t know why herself. She tucked a strand of cornsilk hair behind an ear. “I guess because I’m concerned about you, and you called me your little girl.”

“I did, when?”

“Right after you realized I wasn’t an intruder.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Hailey giggled, and then said shyly. “You sort of, um, well, seem like a second father to me. You’ve played such a huge roll in my life, too. More than most uncles, and you aren’t even my, um, blood uncle. But I love you so much, Uncle Eddie.”

Eddie squeezed both of her hands, then pulled one away to pinch the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. He was so overcome with emotion. For so long he had battled PTSD alone. Only Wendy had known about his nightmares, but he never talked about them. They usually were kept at bay when he slept in shifts. No more than a couple hours sleep at a time. But with this afternoon nap that Hailey walked in on, he was having one in full force.

“I love you too, Angel,” he told her, his head still bowed, his eyes still clamped shut. He knew if he looked at her, he’d start bawling again.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk to me about your nightmares,” Hailey said gently. “It’s just, I want to understand your pain, and be there for you.”

“Thank you,” he croaked, looking at her, and opening his arms for a hug.

“Dad said you were in the Vietnam war,” Hailey said as their hug separated.

“That’s right.”

“Is that what your bad dreams are about?”

“Mostly.”

“Dad said you came home from the war early because you were injured.”

“Not much early, but yeah.”

“Is that what you dream about, how you got injured?”

“Sort of,” he nodded. He had a lot of bad war memories, but that day he earned a purple heart was the worst. Not because of his own injury, but because of the buddy killed right in front of him.

“Can you tell me what happened?” she asked softly.

“Our patrol walked into an ambush,” Ed heard himself say quietly. Why was he talking about this? He had never told anyone, not even Wendy! His wife, who had soothed many a flashback with her love and gentleness. Why was he telling this young girl, his lovely daughter. She was too young to hear of something so horrific. Yet she was so persistent in such an unobtrusive way.

“Were you shot?” she prodded gently.

“No,” he replied, breathing heavily. “A grenade exploded, and I was hit by some shrapnel in the leg. But that wasn’t the bad part. My buddy right in front of me, Jimmy Lansing.”

Eddie stopped talking and started panting as if he had just been sprinting. He stared intently at the floor in front of him.

“What happened to Jimmy?” Hailey persuaded gently, her young voice like that of his namesake for her, an angel.

In a trance like monotone, Ed answered her. “Right before we went on patrol, Jimmy was telling me that the first thing he was gonna do when his tour was up in just a couple weeks, was propose to his high school sweetheart. He was even writing her a letter to her as he told me. Then we were all told to move out, and Jimmy kissed the letter, saying ‘I’ll talk to you later, sweetheart.’

“Twenty minutes later, as we marched, there was an explosion. At the same time I felt something slam into my leg, Jimmy slammed into me and we fell backwards. His face was gone… There was just a bloody mass of bone and tissue in its place… It was… You can’t imagine…”

Ed felt Hailey’s slender arms go around him, and her cheek next to his. They both felt the moisture of their mingled tears. Ed felt a strange sense of relief at unburdening his soul. On the other hand, he worried that what Hailey’s young mind just heard might scar her.

He gently pushed her away, and gripped both of her shoulders. “Angel, I’m sorry, I should have never told you that. I don’t know why I…”

“Oh Uncle Eddie, don’t be,” Hailey told him, as she placed her soft hand on his cheek. “After all, I’m the one that talked you into it. I can’t tell you how honored it makes me feel that you shared that with me.”

Ed shrugged and nodded. An awkward silence ensued before Hailey asked. “Did you ever contact Jimmy’s girlfriend?”

“I did, when I was first discharged,” Ed said. “I felt I owed it to Jimmy. He basically died in my place. If he hadn’t been walking right in front of me, it would have been my head and chest that was ripped away. To be honest, and this is selfish, I’ve often thought he got the better end of the deal. He never knew what hit him, but I’ve known for the last thirty years.”

“Uncle Eddie, you can find peace in God,” Hailey said softly.

“Can I?” he snorted sarcastically. “Where has He been all these years then?”

“He’s right here, but He doesn’t force Himself on anyone. Revelation 3:20 tells us He knocks on the door of our hearts, but it’s up to us to let Him in.”

Ed forced a smile, and nodded. If it was anyone else, he would have spewed sarcasm.

“Can I pray with you, Uncle Eddie?”

If it was anyone else, he would have said no. But he smiled and nodded. Hailey knelt in front of him and took her hands in his. As she prayed, something stirred in Ed. All his doubts, all his cynicism, all his guilt. And why the guilt if he didn’t believe in God?

This angel right in front of him was the best evidence of God working in his life. And yet she was a product of his worst guilt by sleeping with his best friend’s wife. The only guilt that outweighed that was surviving the war when so many others didn’t. He left his own thoughts and tuned into what she was saying.

“As bad as that was, Father,” he heard Hailey saying. “We know that you can relate to our sufferings, and are always there for us. You sweat great drops of blood in anguish over the sins of the world. You suffered the most horrible of all deaths on the cross, and you would have done it for us personally, if we were the only person, the only sinner on the planet…”

Ed was suddenly returned to the thoughts and feelings of his youth when he had felt close to God. This young girl’s words broke through his barrier and made him realize that Jesus was the only hope, the only light in this dark world, in his dark world.

Hailey was momentarily disappointed when she felt Ed rise from the sofa. Then she was elated when she discovered him kneeling in reverence with her. She was thrilled when Uncle Ed himself spoke up himself and asked God back into his life. She felt humbled when he thanked God for her, calling her his angel.

“You’re quite the little counselor,” Ed said when they rose from their knees. He ruffled her hair with his hand.

“Thanks,” she replied with a quick shrug and a shy smile.

“You ought to be a psychiatrist or psychologist,” he said with a chuckle. “Dr. Hailey May Storm.”

“Maybe,” she giggled, turning shyly away from his proud gaze.

Later, after she left, Ed anxiously pulled a cigarette from the pack and lit it. It felt like a cat was clawing at the inside of his chest. He took a deep drag, and then he had an intense round of smoker’s cough. When he pulled his hand away from covering his mouth, there were sprinkles of blood. Again.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS #27)

The Touch of Faith (See Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 8:40-56)

Jairus, an elder of the Jews came to Jesus in great distress, and cast himself at his feet.

Jesus set out at once with the ruler for his home. Though the disciples had seen so many of His works of mercy, they were surprised at His compliance with the entreaty of the haughty rabbi. Yet they accompanied their Master, and the people followed, eager and expectant.

The ruler’s house was not very far, but Jesus and His companions advanced slowly, for the crowd pressed Him on every side. The anxious father was impatient of delay. But Jesus, pitying the people, stopped now and then to relieve some suffering one, or to comfort a troubled heart.

Jairus pressed closer to the Savior, and together they hurried to the ruler’s home. Jesus requiring everyone to leave the house, took with Him the father and mother of the young girl. He also took the three disciples, Peter, James, and John. Together, they entered the chamber of death.

Jesus approached the bedside, and taking the child’s hand in His own, He said, “Damsel, I say unto you, arise.”

On the way to the ruler’s house, there was a poor woman in the crowd who for 12 years had suffered from a disease that made her life a burden. She had spent all her money on physicians and remedies, only to be pronounced incurable. But her hopes revived when she heard of the cures that Christ performed.

She said to herself as he was passing. “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be made whole.”

In the moment she touched it, she knew that she was healed. In that one touch was consecrated the faith of her life, and instantly her pain and feebleness gave place to the vigor of perfect health.

The Savior could distinguish the touch of faith from the casual contact of the careless throng.

It was not simply through the outward contact with Him, but through the faith which took hold on His divine power, that the cure was wrought.

In spiritual things, to talk of religion in a casual way, and to pray without soul hunger and living faith avails nothing. The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual ascent to the truth. It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in Him!

The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces Him as a personal Savior, which appropriates His merits to ourselves. Many hold faith as an opinion. Saving faith is a transaction by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which the soul becomes a conquering power.

Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. God desires that our praise shall ascend to Him, marked by our own individuality.

TRICKY TRIANGLE

CHAPTER 13

MAY 1986 to MAY 1987

“Oh, hey Dawn,” Ed said into the telephone. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, not much,” Dawn replied. Ed could tell her voice sounded strained. “Just having a baby?”

“Oh my! Are you and Hal at the hospital?”

“No, I’m at home, and Hal’s fishing with some guys from work.”

“Fishing in this storm?”

“It was sunny when he left.”

“But the baby isn’t due for a couple weeks.”

“Tell that to our daughter.”

Dawn calling the baby “our daughter” caused Ed to pause and relish the inclusiveness.

“Look, are you coming to take me to the hospital? Or what!” Dawn barked.

“I’m on my way,” Ed replied. “I’ll be there in less than ten.”

Hal was too late to see his wife’s daughter arrive into the world. But the man who impregnated her wasn’t. Ed sat on Dawn’s bed and grinned at the baby he had made with his best friend’s wife. His arm rested on the pillow just above her head. Dawn’s hair was still matted with sweat as she smiled lovingly at her little girl.

Once again, Hal had caught his best friend in bed with his wife. The pair hadn’t spotted him peeking through the doorway, and he stood still watching them. In a strange way, he felt more jealous now than he did the morning he discovered them in bed together, not long after this child was conceived.

“Did you and Hal decide what you are gonna name her?” He heard Ed ask.

“We were thinking about Jennifer, after my mother, and June for her middle name,” Dawn replied. “But seeing how it was hailing when I waited for you to pick me up, I want to name her Hailey. Hailey May, since she didn’t come in June as expected. As long as Hal agrees.”

“Hailey Storm, born right after a hailstorm,” Ed chuckled. “How fitting, I don’t see why he wouldn’t agree.”

Their words made him feel included, and also helped him resist fighting the green eyed monster. He took hold of the camera around his neck, aiming it at Dawn, Ed, and baby Hailey. He snapped off a shot, the click and the flash bulb causing them to look. Ed hopped off of the bed as if caught doing something inappropriate. Dawn smiled happily, although wearily, at her husband.

“Sit back down, Ed,” Hal said as he went to the other side of the bed. Both men sat down at the same time, and then Hal kissed his wife.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Ed said.

“They both are,” Hal replied. “Sorry I wasn’t here.”

“She did come a bit early,” Dawn said. “Thankfully, Eddie was available.”

“Yes,” Hal responded reluctantly, yet with a smile. “There must be something about  stormy weather that makes babies come early.”

A nurse came in and checked on baby and mother. Before she left, Hal asked her to take a picture of the three of them. She wore a puzzled frown as she complied, and Hal thought about saying sarcastically that both he and Ed were the baby’s fathers.

In the weeks following Hailey’s birth, Uncle Ed didn’t miss a day coming over to see his daughter. There were times Hal regretted being so accepting of his wife’s one time paramour. But after weeks turned to months, the duel fathering began to seem normal. Hal learned to not only accept, but enjoy Ed’s role in their daughter’s life.

Then nine months after Hailey was born, a house directly across the street from the Storm residence came up for sale, and Ed bought it. Hal, feeling this was too close for comfort, had renewed feelings of an intruder in their family. Ed, a former detective, perceived his friend’s feelings and kept his distance for a time. But then Hal, catching Ed having a cigarette on his backyard deck, changed everything.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Hal scolded in a joking manner. “I thought you quit before Hailey was born?”

Ed chuckled, took one more drag, and dropped the cigarette into an empty beer bottle. “I did.”

“So I see.”

“I really did for almost a year. But about a week ago, I just, I don’t know…”

“You don’t know what?”

“Anymore, I just feel like a fifth wheel when I’m over at your house. I mean, I love Hailey to pieces, but she’s also a reminder of my sin and how I’ve been an interloper in your marriage. Yet you’ve handled it with class, dignity, and Christian charity.”

Hal felt sorry for his friend, yet he also felt encouraged by his mention of sin and Christian charity. Ever since Ed returned from Vietnam, he had expressed an attitude of atheism. “So that’s why you haven’t been around for the last several days?”

Ed shrugged and lit another cigarette.

“Eddie, I wouldn’t be here right now if I thought you were an interloper. You’re not just some random guy that seduced my wife. You guys had a bond over Wendy. Before your, as you called it, sin, I was witnessing Dawn become infatuated with erotic novels, drinking wine, and dressing sexy. Even knowing this, I stood by and let her get close to you.”

“That’s my point,” Ed said. “You’d have reason not to trust some random guy your wife started hanging out with. But me, you should have been able to trust.”

“Some random guy wouldn’t be showing the contrition that you have, and are right now.”

Ed took a drag from his cigarette, letting the smoke tumble out of his mouth as he talked. “I appreciate your sentiment, but still… Let me ask you something. If it had been some random guy instead of me, would you have still forgiven Dawn?”

“Yes.”

“What about him?”

Hal sighed. “Eddie, I don’t like hypotheticals. How can I know if I’d forgive a fictional guy over fictional circumstances.”

“Fair point.”

“But another point is that I love both you and Dawn. That helped with not only forgiving, but going forward.”

“I love you too, man,” Ed said with a croak. Hal gave him a light punch on the shoulder. Then both men felt awkward with the emotion of the moment.

“I feel like we’re in a sappy commercial or something,” Hal said, and they both laughed. Then Hal continued. “Does it bother you being Uncle Eddie, instead of Daddy?”

“Yes and no,” Ed replied. “I mean, of course, I’d like her to know me as dad. But I also want to abide by Dawn’s wishes in keeping Hailey’s parentage a secret. I completely understand why she would be embarrassed. Shoot, I don’t even want it known that I slept with my best friend’s wife.”

Hal had a brief flashback of seeing his wife in bed with Ed, their clothes strewn about the floor, and the sleezy smell of alcohol and stale cigarette smoke. “Look, Eddie, I’ve never been a rearview mirror type of guy. I believe in not only looking forward, but moving forward.”

“That’s just it,” Ed said. “It’s hard to move forward when… Because I…”

“Because you what?”

“I have a confession.”

“Yeah?”

“I love Dawn.”

“I know, I loved Wendy.”

“Yeah,” Ed said, sighed, and then winced. “But you didn’t have a baby by Wendy.”

Hal didn’t feel any resentment because he felt truly bad for his friend for loving a woman he couldn’t have. He had always felt a strange satisfaction sharing his wife with his close friend after he lost Wendy. It seemed like such a contradiction with his occasional bouts of jealousy.  “Is that what’s been keeping you away then?”

“I don’t know,” Ed sighed, pulling out another cigarette.

“Slow down, man!” Hal barked.

“Huh?”

“What, are you trying to make up for lost time after not smoking for a year?”

Ed snorted a laugh and slid the cigarette back in the pack. “Habits man, you do them without thinking. I’m not gonna lie, I missed smoking last year.”

“It’s not healthy to desire things we shouldn’t have,” Hal told him.

Ed wondered if he had a double meaning with his statement. Hal instantly realized that it could have sounded like he meant his wife with his words. “Why don’t you come over for supper tonight, you’ll set Dawn’s mind at ease. Remember, we’re moving forward. Little Hailey makes us all family.”

“Alright,” Ed said, forcing a smile. He truly appreciated Hal’s generosity and loved him for it. On the other hand, upon saying it made them all family, Ed felt like replying sarcastically that he was gonna be Uncle Eddie to his own daughter.

Why were there so many yins and yang’s in life? That day and night with Dawn was amazing, especially when they unintentionally made a baby. Then the aftermath of guilt was awful and still lingered. Yet Hailey was beautiful, a miracle, despite being conceived in sin. He had to be in her life, no matter what the role. He would be the best uncle that ever existed.

“Great, I’ll let Dawn know you’re coming. See ya at six.”

“I’ll be there, and thanks Hal. I can’t imagine having a better friend.”

Hal slapped his back and walked away. As soon as he was out of sight, Ed pulled a cigarette from the pack. He might not be able to have the woman he desired, but what about a habit he desired. He lit the coffin nail, took a long drag, and inhaled deeply.

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS #26)

Peace Be Still (See Matthew 8:23-34, Mark 4:35-41 and 5:1-20, Luke 8:22-39)

Absorbed in their efforts to save themselves, the disciples had forgotten that Jesus was on board.

In Jesus was their only hope. In their helplessness and despair they cried, “Master, Master!” The dense darkness hid Him from their sight. Suddenly a flash of lightning pierces the darkness, and they see Jesus lying asleep, undisturbed by the tumult.

“Lord save us, we perish!” Never did a soul utter that cry unheeded.

When Jesus was awakened to meet the storm, he was in perfect peace. There was no trace of fear in word or look, for no fear was in His heart.

As Jesus rested in His Father’s care, so we are to rest in the care of our Savior.

How often the disciples experience is ours. When the tempest of temptation gather, and the fierce lightnings flash, and the waves sweep over us, we battle with the storm alone, forgetting there is One who can help us. We trust to our own strength till our hope is lost, and we are ready to perish.

But if we have the Savior in our hearts, there is no need of fear. Living faith in the Redeemer will smooth the sea of life, and will deliver us from danger in the way that He knows is best.

The people of Gergesa had before them the living evidence of Christ’s power and mercy. They saw the men who had been restored to reason; but they were so fearful of endangering their earthly interests that He who had vanquished the prince of darkness before their eyes was treated as an intruder, and the Gift of heaven was turned from their doors.

It is in working to spread the good news of salvation that we are brought near to the Savior.

The encounter with the demoniacs at Gergesa had a lesson for the disciples. It showed the depths of degradation to which Satan is seeking to drag the whole human race, and the mission of Christ to set men free from his power.

Satan’s influence is constantly exerted upon men to distract the senses, control the mind for evil, and incite to violence and crime. He weakens the body, darkens the intellect, and debases the soul.

Before humanity and angels Satan has been revealed as man’s enemy and destroyer. Christ, as man’s friend and deliverer. His spirit will develop in people all that will ennoble the character and dignify the nature.

The only safeguard against Satan’s power  is found in the presence of Jesus.